Page 121 - Knots You Need to Know Easy-to-Follow Guide to the 30 Most Useful Knots

A Spliced Bridle

A water-ski bridle functions as a strong and flexible link between a skier’s
towline and the towboat. The bridle attaches to a pair of eyebolts, one
fixed on either side of the transom. Threaded into the bridle is a

lightweight running block, with a shackle for attaching the towline. As the
skier slaloms from one side to the other, the running block slides along
the bridle so that the drag on each section of line remains equal—so long
as neither the skier nor the boat driver turns too abruptly.

While bridles like the one shown here are commercially available in
various sizes, a boatman can fashion his own from braided polyethylene
water-ski towline, suiting it exactly to his boat’s dimensions—and the

process will take him no more than 10 minutes’ working time.

5
1. A bridle requires enough /16-inch hollow-core polyethylene line to
reach from one eyebolt on the towboat’s transom to the other, with